Desert's ARE interesting

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We had our first look at death valley in the morning! It really is an amazing place for a desert. Canyons have been formed from the ice age and further shaped by flash flooding. There are multiple rock formations out here, limestone, marble, sand, salt, granite and many different forms of animal life. After walking through “mosaic” canyon we took a tour at Scotty’s castle. The irony in this is that this 2 million dollar castle was built pretty well in the middle of nowhere by a wealthy millionaire who was duping into the desert by a conman (Scotty) who clamed to have a hugely successful goldmine at his feet. Well the castle has now become a national monument and the national park gives tours of the castle and underground tunnel system. We were well impressed in the preservation and sophistication of the castle which had a medieval Spanish design.
The guides dress as the part also. We had our own personal tour which was nice and the guide was dress in late 1800 attire.
Plenty of coyotes were outside to greet us and hope for food scraps. We visited a large volcanic crater called the Utehebe crater, and scree ran down to the bottom in about 1 minute but it took 20 minutes to climb back up! It was getting near sunset as we climbed some of the famous sand dunes to watch the sun set for the evening. We fortunately came at the right time to death valley. In the summer temperatures can reach 50c!!! In autumn and winter a more comfortable 30c can be experienced during the day. Funnily enough the tourist season is about to kick off for death valley. The RV parks are already very busy! We found a campsite in furnace creek. Tonight does seem like it might be a bit colder, but that is only expected for a desert environment.

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Photos

Feel the rock.
So smooth...hmmm. In mosaic canyon.

Castle Courtyard
The courtyard in Scotty's Castle

Roadkill
Well it looks like this coyote wants to be roadkill. He's just hanging out at the intersection providing tourists with good photo opportunities.

Touring Scotty's Castle
My sister and the guide investigate Scotty's Castle

Scotty's Castle
Outside shot of this amazing building.

Uhehebe Crator
Wide shot of the crater. No one quite knows how it got there.

Inside Uhebebe crater
I demonstrate....er....something

The long straight road
Death Valley highway.

Sand Dunes
Evening light on the Sand Dunes in Death Valley

Walking the sand dunes
This is where they filmed Star Wars episode 4 apparently.

Photography
My sister took this shot of me taking a shot of the sand dunes.

Death Valley Sunset
Nice Colours!